Nearly 100 tenants and Living Rent members from across Glasgow, crammed into the aptly named Mary Barbour suite. The room in the pearce institute is named after one of Govan’s most famous daughters. Mary Barbour led tens of thousands of Glasgows Women and Men on Rent Strikes durings the WW1 forcing the Government at the time to step in and implement rent controls.
Living Rent celebrated its launch in Glasgow in July and is looking to grow membership numbers as it tackles problems tenants have with private landlords.
Nearly 100 tenants and Living Rent members from across Glasgow, crammed into the aptly named Mary Barbour suite. The room in the pearce institute is named after one of Govan’s most famous daughters. Mary Barbour led tens of thousands of Glasgows Women and Men on Rent Strikes durings the WW1 forcing the Government at the time to step in and implement rent controls.
The room heard how the union had a 100% success rate in the months since its inception to its launch in Glasgow. Resisting unjust evictions such as the case of Amanda Gallagher where her Letting Agency, AVJ homes had served a Notice to Quit after Amanda had notified them that she would not be paying the illegal £20 admin fee to renew the lease. After Living Rents involvement and attempted intimidation by both the Letting Agency and the Landlord Amanada and Living Rent secured another property that was bigger and had a lower rent.
Speeches from Living Rent members in some of the city’s housing associations were followed by short films showing how tenants in Whiteinch and Scotstoun Housing Association had been organising against some of the most expensive social housing rents in Scotland and the closure of local facilities.
After lunch the room was split into groups to discuss and plan possible city wide campaigns, some of the brilliant ideas discussed included the mock inspections of Letting Agents and Landlords offices to ensure they were keeping to the terms imposed on tenants. It was finally agreed and voted on to launch a city-wide campaign for a Rent Pressure Zone, a power that is coming in with the new Private Tenancy Act in late 2017.
Before the day ended with a marvellous cover version of John Lennon’s imagine (skillfully reworded to imagine there’s no landlords). A city wide organising team or tenant members was elected to further improve the structure and communications of the branch in Glasgow.